Is it wrong to want more? Does it make you ungrateful for what you already have?
Why do we feel bad asking for or expecting more?
These are the questions we are considering in today’s Powering Your Passion episode.
Being thankful and grateful for what you have and have achieved is so important for your wellbeing, happiness and contentment. In addition, that appreciation for what you have achieved already is the basis for any change you want to make in your life.
If you know you want more in life but are struggling with allowing yourself to go for it, this episode is for you!
Are you ready for more? Yes? Then hit play
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So all the talk around Thanksgiving has got me thinking about the importance of being thankful and grateful for what we have in life already, and that there are people less fortunate. If you are a regular listener you’ll know I talk a lot about going for what you want in life, in living your passion and making your career and life dreams happen now. But, that doesn’t mean you should not be happy and thankful for what you have already. Afterall, if you are constantly looking forward and never enjoying the here and now you can miss out on a lot. Life can pass you by and you will never be truly happy as there will always be new goals and things to achieve.
Even when you are living your passion and have achieved the success you want now, you will find new dreams to chase. Reflecting on what you have already achieved and gained can be really insightful and help you understand what you want more of in your life, and the things that you want to have less of. You can see what is REALLY important in your life.
However, that said, we shouldn’t let being thankful and grateful for what we have hold us back from going for more in life. I now always try to have a balance of enjoyment in the present while still moving towards achieving my goals. That way I can appreciate what I already have, while being excited for what more I can do in life.
It’s taken a long time for me to be able to do that, to realise that I deserved and could go for my passions and dreams in life. I always had this underlying belief that I shouldn’t want too much, that other people were allowed to have more but I should be grateful with what I have. Afterall I had a lot more than a lot of people, particularly as I climbed up the career ladder and had the income and lifestyle that went with it. Even when I allowed myself to change my life and secretly had plans to make it happen, I did not tell friends for a long time what I was planning as they may have thought I’m greedy to want to want a life that fulfils me or crazy for believing that I deserved to live my passions and, dare I say it, to want MORE in life!
Where in your life are you hesitant about asking for more because you are afraid to be told no or the reaction you will get. Maybe you are hesitant to ask for more salary or a bigger bonus, because after all you are paid a fair wage, you are better off than other people, so why should you get more? Even if you deserve it. What will your boss say? What will they think? What if they shout ‘MORE’ at you!! Not very likely but it still holds you back!
It can also show up as you believing that you don’t deserve more in life or that you are ungrateful for what you have in some way because you are comfortable and have everything you need. So what if you want more, everyone does, so why should you be the one to get it?
Although it’s got a lot better, in the UK there is a still a negativity around wanting to improve yourself, about wanting to make more money or wanting to have more fulfilment in your work or make more impact. There is an element of ‘who do they think they are’!
A lot of the time it’s because most people do not have the confidence, energy or will power to change their life, so they are envious of those who do, or they don’t have a strong urge to want more and can only see the negatives or dangers in what you want to do.
The fact is we as humans were designed and programmed to want more. If prehistoric people had thought ‘I really like this cave, and the fire is warm and cooks the food I caught, I have my family around me so I don’t need more’ , we would still be with him in that cave. Instead they wanted more and they started to make it happen. The desire for more is what defines us. It’s how we have come to where we are today. I know that is in simplistic terms but the point is that we are allowed to want more, in fact we owe it to our children to go for more or society will not develop. By taking different paths, by breaking long held rules and beliefs and daring to challenge the status quo, you are helping human, society and the world progress.
Now although everyone has the desire for more, to progress and achieve, the drive is stronger in some people. That’s why if you have that strong urge for more in your life, some people can’t understand you. They can’t understand why you would want to break the mould and forge your own path. Most successful inventors, entrepreneurs and trail blazers were called mad or crazy people before they became revered as geniuses.
Saying that, you don’t need to go big to fulfil your desire for more in life, or to make a difference.
It does not have to be a earth shattering discovery or a massive change. Even small changes can make a difference. So if you plan to change your career specialism from corporate to a creative field, or from a creative field into something academic, or you plan to start a business or change your life completely by starting a business abroad, you are choosing to use your skills and talent in a new field you are passionate about. You are going against the grain. You are bringing your talents to the world that otherwise would have been wasted. If a lot of people, that would otherwise have wasted their talents and passions, are daring enough to go for their dreams, it can make a huge difference. That is how movements happen, how societies rules change and what was impossible one day becomes normal the next.
As the quote from writer and poet Ryunosuke Satoro goes ‘Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean’
So your decision to make a change, power your passion and and achieve MORE in your life could not only bring you personal happiness, fulfillment and success, it may have a greater impact than you think!
The bottom line is…
We should all be thankful for our lives, we should all take time to be grateful for what we have, not just the things we have, or have achieved, but also the people we have in our lives. They are what living your passion are all about, when you are happy in what you do, you are able to share that positivity, happiness and energy with them and spread that love.
That said, just make sure that you don’t let what you have achieved already make you feel bad about wanting more. You are allowed to want more! What’s more you are allowed to make it happen!
Thank you all for joining me, I am truly grateful for each and everyone of you who have chosen to listen in and look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months and years , while I cheer you on as you make your leap to a new career and life.
Thanks so much for listening and if you would like to listen to more episodes, follow or subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google or Stitcher,
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Join me in the next episode and remember, everyone deserves to live their passion, so get started this is your time!
